7 Years Of Delays Kept This Anime Sports Rpg From Coming Out, But...

Level-5 has finally released Inazuma Eleven: Victory Road and everyone loves it.

I'm simply not as strong as an Inazuma Eleven: Victory Road fan. I can barely wait 30 seconds to microwave something and these people have been waiting for a new entry in their favorite anime soccer RPG series for nine entire years.

Level-5 announced the game in 2016 and then forced fans to endure eight delays, including two this year, for it to finally come out. Despite all the extra development time, though, it didn't forget about the people who won a giveaway for the game seven years ago. The winners received letters with their prizes this month.

"My daughter won it in 4th grade, and she's now in 10th grade lol," an X user wrote (translated via DeepL).

Inazuma Eleven started as a sports RPG in 2008 and grew into a whole franchise that includes a manga and anime series. While there are plenty of spin-off games, the main series only had three entries by 2010. Victory Road was supposed to be released in 2018, but suffered delays—as you can probably infer by the fact that this is extremely not 2018.

The good news is that Victory Road's long road to release hasn't ended in disappointment for most players. On Steam, it's at an "Overwhelmingly Positive" rating with over 600 reviews. Most of those users are in love with it and fully believe the wait was worth it.

"You know that scene from Ratatouille where Ego eats the food and gets a flashback to his childhood?" writes Steam user Tobithecomic in their positive review. "Yeah that was me playing this."

Another Steam reviewer, Cuddly_alex, says it's an "absolute goalkeeper of a game, nothing gets past it." They praise the gameplay, the characters, the music, and say the delays were worth it. "This game didn't just score, it hit my soul with a Fire Tornado of nostalgia."

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Reddit users echo the same sentiment, highlighting Level-5's commitment to finishing such an ambitious game that incorporates aspects from the entire series. Many players specifically point out how it adapts the previous games' campaigns into visual novel-like sequences and recreates the old matches.

Source: PC Gamer